At a hearing Friday, City Attorney Michael Bernard argued that even if Berchelmann gives a final order against the city plan, San Antonio has an “inalienable right” to use other funds to move the project forward.

But the opponents said the judge must preserve the “status quo” by blocking all work until the lawsuit is resolved, even if the city finds a different way to pay for the $9 million project.

The project in question would divert floodwaters off Broadway. The 2007 bond plan called for drainage culverts under Broadway, with the water diverted into an existing canal parallel to the street and eventually into the San Antonio River.

Wymer characterized the city's actions as “blatantly and unbashfully defrauding voters,” and Kemmey looked at Bernard and said “shame on you” for trying to find a way to start the revamped project.

The two sides appeared in court Friday because they were unable to negotiate an agreement for the judge to sign. Each side presented its own order to Berchelmann.

“You sign their order and the status quo is gone, and they're out building on Hildebrand and this case is over,” Kemmey said. “You sign that order, and it's over.”

Bernard argued that under Kemmey's theory, if the city were to hypothetically discover a far more efficient way of relieving flooding at the Broadway-Hildebrand intersection — by drilling a hole in the ground miles away that would miraculously stop flooding — it would forever be barred from doing so because voters had approved a bond project in 2007.

That would be putting a means ahead of the ends, he said, and the trial was about a very specific issue: the use of 2007 bond funds on that specific drainage project.

Blocking the use of bond funds doesn't “affect all the other rights, powers and authorities” of the city, Bernard said.

It's unclear whether the city has the means to pay for the project in some other way, which is the fear of the opponents. It appears, though, that the city is headed toward a delay, at the very least, because the project was slated to begin this month.